Ideal reader according to A.G. Bitov

A teacher cannot dream of an ideal student, because an ideal student is always better than a teacher, which is why he feels imperfection deep down in his soul. Just as a surgeon cannot dream of an ideal patient, since an ideal patient is, as we know, one who is terminally ill, and what surgeon is ready to admit his professional helplessness?

However, there are enough professions in the world whose representatives can dream of an ideal consumer for their talent.

I remember the cook from the Ashgabat “Brand Turkmen Hotel”, where I, a participant in the international book fair, had the opportunity to live for a whole week. I really liked the evening ilov, and I told the cook, who called himself Atamurad, that I would like my wife to recognize this taste, so would he tell me the recipe for its preparation.

But Atamurad shook his head:

This is Agurjali ash. To master all the secrets of its preparation, you need to be no closer than a fifth generation Turkmen. And to feel its real taste, you need to be born and grow up where the Sumbar flows into the Atrek.

Why there? I asked.

Because from there they bring me saffron and azhgon, which are added to the Agurjali ash. Because sheep graze there, the meat of which is used for Agurjali ash. Because I was born there. Every time I cook Agurjali ash, I remember my native places with tenderness and love, and this love and tenderness gives the dish a special flavor that can only be felt by those who, like me, were born and raised where Sumbar flows into the Atrek.

Atamurad dreamed of an ideal visitor to the Grand Turkmen Hotel restaurant, who could feel the taste of love and tenderness in his dishes, and I dream of my ideal reader.

Having written a few pages of a future book, I like to leave the apartment and in city parks and squares, on streets and avenues, in shops and coffee shops, on buses and subways, to watch people, trying to recognize by their faces the one for whom, first of all, this the book is being written. The one who can accurately determine which pages I struggled with the most, and in which places I paused while working to walk around the city.

The ideal reader recognizes only the original, and not the translation, which significantly narrows the space of my searches, and therefore increases the chances of finding it. On the other hand, this space today is already too small for an ideal reader to appear in it, and every year it narrows more and more.

Yes, I write in a language in which not too many people read poetry and prose.

I know what Atamurad would say to this: “The more often you see people with a hot dog in their hands, the more delicious I want to cook.”

I asked Atamurad, when we were sitting on a bench one day near the monument to the poet Karacaoglan, if he thought that he really didn’t have much of a chance of meeting in a restaurant someone who was born and raised where Sumbar flows into the Atrek , since the vast majority of guests of the Grand Turkmen Hotel are visitors from other countries. To which Atamurad replied:

The one who waits has four pairs of eyes, and he simultaneously looks into the four directions of the world. The one who stops waiting has no match. I rarely talk to restaurant patrons, so I can’t know for sure whether one of them was someone who was born and raised in the Atreka Valley. Perhaps he was there yesterday, but he was too hungry and in a bad mood. Hungry people, like those who sit down to dinner without the mood, cannot feel the real taste of food. Or maybe he is sitting in a restaurant now or will come tomorrow. Therefore, every time I prepare ash for the past, for the future and for today. Waiting helps you stay in shape. I'm afraid of losing my job not because I can't do anything else, but because then I'll stop waiting.

Atamurad paused, as if recalling one of the episodes of his life to the smallest detail, and then remembered how he met the outstanding, according to the narrator, Belarusian pianist Valentin, who never saw his fame on the big stage. He came to Ashgabat with his brother Andrei, who served as an officer here just before the collapse of the Soviet Union and whose daughter Marina remained here - she married a Turkmen. The apartments of Atamurad and Marina were separated by one wall, which let in sounds the way the foliage of trees lets in the sun's rays. Thanks to this, the piano lessons that seventy-year-old Vaziga gave her daughter on weekends (they said about her that she would put a penny in an empty wallet and take out a ruble from it) were given to his son for free.

Although Atamurad himself loved music so much that he never missed a single premiere at the opera house, he shunned reading music because he believed that a person could only have one calling. This is the work that you think about all the time, even in your sleep, and just as you can’t cook yshtykma and ash in the same cauldron at the same time, you can’t think about different jobs at the same time.

One evening Atamurad heard someone start playing the piano behind the wall. This was not a neighbor’s daughter or seventy-year-old Vaziga: they played not just professionally, but masterfully. Moreover, Ravel's piano concerto for the left hand sounded. The latter circumstance particularly intrigued Atamurad, since for someone with two hands and ten fingers to play music written for one hand is as bad a sign as for a healthy person to walk on crutches on both legs.

Atamurad picked himself up from his chair - and a minute later he was already standing in front of Valentin. When they met, Atamurad, without looking away, looked into his eyes, but the handshake revealed that Valentin was missing a ring finger on his right hand.

As a person who has a real calling, which he thinks about even when he is talking about something completely different, Valentin heard music in everything and looked at everything through the eyes of a musician. On the last day before returning to Minsk, he baked a large sponge cake and asked Marina to invite Atamurad to a farewell dinner. The cake looked like piano keys placed in a spiral - 52 keys were white and 36 were red. Above the last one - “up to” the fifth octave - rose a chocolate treble clef. Valentin said that each of the keys has its own taste, just as each key in reality has its own sound. To feel the real taste of the cake, you need to scoop from them with a spoon in the sequence in which the keys are pressed when playing a certain melody with one hand. Different melodies gave the cake its own flavor.

When Valentin told this to those present, silence fell at the table. Not only did no one, except Valentin and Marina’s daughter, know how to read music, but each of those present could not dare to take the first spoonful of the shared cake.

And then Marina jumped up from the table. She slashed the silent keys with a knife.

Atamurad saw Valentin’s right hand tremble.

And I propose...” Marina said loudly and fell silent without finishing the sentence: her daughter jumped up from the table and rushed to the door.

What's happened? - Marina shouted after her. - Uncle Valentin was joking! What notes, what melody?!

I asked Atamurad if he knew where Valentin was now and what he was doing.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that he lives happily enough to ask Marina about him,” Atamurad said. - People themselves talk about their relatives when everything is good with them, and they try to avoid this topic when everything is bad. Valentin called himself a musician who has more past than present, so I don’t know where and with whom he works now, but if you ask me who Valentin from Belarus is, I will answer without hesitation: first of all, he is an outstanding pianist , and everything else doesn't matter much.

I looked at Atamurad’s hands, which resembled the hands of a twenty-year-old youth.

Maybe he became a good cook?

There’s too much music in his cake,” Atamurad shook his head with a smile. - And this is the same as if you add too much pepper to Agurjali ash.

Ideal reader

Many readers, few readers.

Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1866–1941), writer, philosopher

A good reader is rarer than a good writer.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), Argentine writer

The ideal reader suffers from ideal insomnia.

James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish writer

The ideal reader of my novels should be a desperate Catholic, a failed musician, myopic, colorblind, perceiving the world rather by ear. And he must be about my age.

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993), English writer

Only in the village can you truly become close to a person or a book.

Cyril Connolly (1903–1974), English critic

If you want to read this book to the end, try to get to the hospital.

Patrick Nuttjens (b. 1930)

We don't know whether Mr. Kissinger is truly a great writer, but anyone who has read his book to the end is a great reader.

Washington Post on Kissinger's 900-page Diplomacy

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The perfect Martini? Each bartender has his own version of this cocktail (with olive, zest, shaken, mixed, etc.). I would say that there is nothing wrong with trying different options for the sake of studying them, of course. It's like a box of chocolates.

“The whole world is a theater. There are women, men, all actors in it.” To paraphrase these lines from Shakespeare's play As You Like It, one can say: “All the world is a book. All people are readers." Namely, that all, at least some of them, are/consider themselves writers. After all, not everyone writes, but everyone reads: fiction and technical literature, journalism, news feeds... But if part of what is written is simply information that needs to be studied or taken into account, fiction always wants “feedback.”
Repeatedly, the author of the article has seen and heard statements: “I write for myself, I don’t need reviews and your opinions.” Alas, such speeches can only be regarded as hypocrisy, perhaps slyness, cunning. If the author of what was written did not immediately put his work “on the table” or did not destroy it, but put it on public display, it means that he, one way or another, wants recognition. If I didn’t want to, I didn’t put it up, everything is logical. This applies to any work created in a creative frenzy “with your own hands”: musical compositions, photographs, crafts...
Yes, it is very rare to find authors who exclude the possibility of leaving reviews under their works, but if you want to convey your opinion to the author, it remains possible. Probably, this is how these authors, limiting the methods of commenting, want to find an ideal reader who is so delighted with the text that he will go through fire and water just to convey his opinion to the author.
This means that every author either clearly or in the depths of his soul dreams of being read, recognized, commented on...
Nowadays, due to the widespread and widespread use of the Internet, it is very simple to receive “feedback” on your work: you do not need to write a letter to the publisher or the author personally, there is no need to organize literary meetings. It is enough to write a comment under the posted text or a personal message to the author. This is what every person who has shown the world his work, written as a way of self-expression and self-affirmation, expects. Everyone wants recognition.
But, unfortunately, not everything is so simple and not everything is so fast.
Readers are different; the same person can, depending on his mood, lack of time or text read, move from one category to another. But it’s still worth highlighting them:

The invisible reader.
He seems to be there (noticeable by the presence of views), but he is not there - his presence does not reveal himself in any way: he does not leave reviews, does not click on the “like” mark or anything else, depending on the characteristics of the site.
There is not much benefit from such readers: yes, they seem to please the author’s vanity, but they do not take part in the “fate” of the work. As a result, the author remains in the dark: is his work so bad? Is he not literate and interesting enough for the reader? How much text did this “invisible man” read - just the first paragraph, skimmed through everything, or thoughtfully studied the character of each character and followed the plot?
Anyone can become such a reader: “I read on the subway from my phone, it’s inconvenient to leave reviews, and I should have already left”, “The text is so “none” that there’s nothing to comment on”, “Oh come on, I’m wasting my time on reviews.” I’d better go and read something else from this author, he writes interestingly!”
But the author is waiting...

The reader is selective.
It’s not uncommon to come across reviews like: “Your story is so great that I registered for it to write about it!”, “I generally rarely write reviews, only if the work is really cool. So, I wrote, your work is cool.”
The logic of such readers is clear; they deliberately do not waste their time and energy on reviews of “unworthy” works, in their opinion. To the credit of such readers, as a rule, the reviews turn out to be detailed and extensive, more like mini-reviews, which means they really read and were imbued with the text. Here the value is in quality, not in quantity, and based on the emotions from their reviews, the authors discourage negativity from tedious waiting.
But such readers are very, very few.

The reader is faithful and devoted.
Some authors have regular readers who responsibly comment on every new and old story, regardless of its quality, genre or focus.
Readers, as a rule, end up in such a “support group” for two reasons:
. Personal acquaintance with the author (forums, social networks, everyday communication in educational institutions, interest and work clubs),
. Sympathy for the author precisely as a writer.
Communication between the author and his “support group” can often go beyond the site where the texts are posted and continues in the same social networks. networks. Such commenting is often mutual, when readers are also authors.
On the one hand, the author has a proven “client base” who will be happy with any work, will conscientiously comment, advise, and correct errors, but on the other... Often reviews in the Reader/Friend - Author/Friend connection are not completely frank. The desire to please a friend comes to the fore, even if the author has presented a frankly weak work. In case of quarrels during communication, the negativity also affects the creative sphere.
And again, not all authors have such a “support group.”

The reader is abstract.
This phenomenon is observed, but the ground under it is very shaky, the slightest step to the side, and the reader will leave this category.
Such a person reads for the sake of... reading. He is not interested in the identity of the author, comments from other readers, explanations and reasons for writing a particular text.
He reads only those texts that are interesting to him, comments if he wants, clearly and sometimes cruelly, he doesn’t care: it’s the author’s first story or the hundredth, whether they like it on this resource or no one has read it yet. As a rule, such readers are literate people who do not want to enter into discussions, but sometimes strive to help, noting the shortcomings of the work, suggesting ways to correct them. They leave reviews of different quality, depending on the quality of the work itself. Their view is unbiased, but because of this it often seems negative, especially in the eyes of inexperienced authors. It is necessary to distinguish such readers from people who deliberately want to offend the author. According to the principle: “Your work is complete nonsense. I didn’t like it” - this is an angry author, but “Your work is complete nonsense, because...” - this is already an abstract reader who wants to help, even if the author is fifteen years old, this is his first text, and the author does not know the specifics of treating stab wounds wounded, but writes how his hero suffered terribly and was bleeding, but smartly escaped from the hands of the doctors and quickly galloped off to continue the fight.
Such a reader can become a “regular” reader if he liked the style and style of the author, but the risk is that the reader will not agree to get closer for the sake of communication and will write a review “as is,” without embellishment. Here it is the author’s will - to listen to other people’s opinions and improve, or to snap back and declare that “we ourselves have a mustache.”

As mentioned above, the same person can, depending on various reasons, move from one category to another.
But not one of the categories, not one of these manners of reading behavior can be considered the only good, correct, ideal.
Every author wants to find his ideal reader. If you ask the authors what kind of reader is ideal for you, you can hear the answer:
- good,
- to comment on every work, every part of this work,
- to leave reviews in a timely manner, as soon as the work appeared online (even if the reader is at that moment three o’clock in the morning),
- to leave a detailed review, at least five hundred words, or better yet a professional review, analyzing every plot twist, the character of each character, noting what the descriptions and outfits of the characters are,
- to be useful with his advice, helping the author to grow, to find out all the mistakes, stylistic errors, cultural flaws in the text, and at the same time teach him to use unfamiliar equipment and the basics of xeno-botany.
- to be polite and courteous, not to get personal and not to be rude,
- to mark errors and blunders, but so that other readers of this message do not see (what if they did not notice these errors, why would they spoil the impression?),
- to suggest further developments of events, give ideas if the work is not finished, immediately write which characters are good and which ones are better to kill, so that they don’t become an eyesore,
- to be interested in the author as a person, his interests, but not to interfere in his personal life.
- so that you admire the works you like (all of them by the author) and re-read them, writing about it every time, even if it’s the tenth one in a week.
- so that he reads and enjoys every work, despite its quality, and if he notices that this is the ravings of a madman and just a stupid set of words, he is silent about it and still rejoices!

After analyzing these “requirements”, you realize that the authors dream not of a reader, but of a personal robot programmed to perform specific functions to monitor, improve and praise their work.
Authors, are you waiting for a good, ideal reader? Are you yourself the same ideal reader for at least someone?
No. Simply because it is impossible. To become an ideal reader for someone, you have to make a deal with your own conscience. How can you please the author if his work is terrible, and you understand this, but you cannot tell about it, because he is your friend, you used to like his work, and in general you were just passing by? There is only one way out - to be a hypocrite. And how to treat this depends on the person himself.
You can strive for this “category,” but the requirements for it contradict themselves.
But you can set certain limits for yourself in order to be a good reader:

Leave a review of the work you read.
Once you've taken the time to read it, it's not too bad to spend another five minutes reviewing it. It’s not in vain that reading began in the first place; it means that the work attracted something: the personality of the author, the characters, even just the title or description.

To be polite.
For the sake of self-respect, you won’t have to write culturally and competently; it’s not difficult.

Brevity is the sister of talent, not in this case.
Write at least a couple of lines about the story itself: about its atmosphere, whether you liked the characters or not, maybe the author describes the action scenes or romance well? Perhaps there are mistakes in the text or points that require correction, but not everything works out as planned. Mark it.

Honesty is not a vice.
Be honest with yourself and with the author. You can express your dissatisfaction without offending the person, but if the text is replete with errors, this must be eliminated. Provide help, even if the author is not happy about it, he will at least notice that not everything is as smooth as he thought. What if he listens?
The review is now ready!

If the reader follows the work of a particular author, it is necessary to remember: no matter how much the author himself likes it, flattery and verbiage will not lead to good. Everyone needs to develop and learn, and without pointing out mistakes and help, this will not be possible. Anyone who wants to grow will listen in any case, just remember to be polite. What is said with a kind word will be accepted on faith much faster.

But all people are different.
Each author has his own idea of a good, kind, ideal reader. Some people already have them (meeting the necessary requirements), for example, “support groups” - faithful and devoted readers, the only question is whether they are ideal and useful, and how many authors have them?
There is no such thing as an ideal reader, just like there is no ideal writer.
But no one forbids us to strive for these categories.
So maybe it's worth a try?

“Once or twice I was able to personally encounter that ideal reader whom only imagination could imagine. (I do not mean an enthusiastic or flattering reader, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant the meeting with him may be.)

I had a personal friendship with one of them that lasted almost ten years.

The help that Elena Samsonovna Ralbe has provided me over the years is invaluable. She is more than twice my age; her reading taste and experience far exceeded mine. Our acquaintance began through correspondence (an experience that is never successful...), very soon she turned out to be the first reader of all my things.

When she passed away this year, I realized that I had lost a completely biographical person. She was not one of, but the only reader whom fate sent me, for whom there will be no replacement.

In practice, you have to arm yourself with the least destructive cynicism regarding the reader’s perception: for you or against... There can be only one conclusion from this: since you express your word first, and then submit it to an unrequited judgment, your word should be as complete as possible , you must demand everything from yourself at the table in order to be sure that you have done everything you could and fully expressed yourself.

But the quiet image of the invisible reader, perceiving you in your sense, remains. At the very beginning of my work, I developed for myself the following consoling theory: one accurate understanding from the outside is enough to make sure that you were accurate, because an identical interpretation can only occur within the limits of truth - there are no two identical madnesses, they are not can meet or meet with the same probability as a collision in world space of two astral bodies. They understand you - you are not crazy. They understood you - here is proof of your norm.

Reader and writer or writer and reader? From the darkness of the meanings of this relationship that escape in the depths and melt on the surface, I consider it necessary to begin by focusing on the order of these two words and prefer the second combination, placing the writer first. If only because a book is first written and then read. If only because the writer was first a reader of books written before him.

There is no problem here, because the reader and the writer are a real, valid and effective relationship between producer and consumer, in which the contact is practically zero. We don’t personally know the person who baked and sewed for us, and he Not knows us. To put it mildly, acquaintance is not necessary. We can respect the work of others only by conscientiously performing our own, the fruits of which we ourselves use minimally.”

Bitov A.G., Writer and reader / Articles from the novel, M., “Soviet Writer”, 1986, p. 8-9.

“Truly, the best hero a great artist creates is his reader.”

V.Nabokov

The ideal reader - who is he: a fan, a faithful listener, blindly heeding the lines of his favorite author, or a student, carefully observing his teacher and trying to imitate him in everything, deep down still hoping to surpass him and do everything his own way. Or the ideal reader is a critic, before whose opinion the writer himself trembles: the entire future fate of the work depends on his decision, which, as history shows, can last for many centuries, together with humanity, encountering new phenomena that each new era presents.

The world-famous writer Vladimir Nabokov paid special attention to the issue of reader perception and repeatedly addressed it in his literary essays and lectures. Therefore, it will be especially interesting to consider the question of the “ideal reader” using the example of this author.

This problem was also studied in detail by the philosopher and writer Umberto Eco in his work “The Role of the Reader. Studies on text semiotics". Eco divides works of art into “open” - depending on the interpretation that the reader gives them, and “closed”, in which the possibility of interpretation is limited; the author does not require creativity from the viewer, offering him only facts.

Any writer who writes for the sake of his idea, when he simply cannot not write, sooner or later asks the question: what is the image of his ideal reader? The author creates a work, reverently, carefully, piece by piece, collecting it from his thoughts. While the book is in an embryonic state, it does not belong to anyone except the author, and only one story lives in it - the one that he put into it. But with the first reader, the work begins an independent life.

Open works should not be taken literally. With each new reading, the story laid by the author in the foundation of the work takes on a new meaning, a new shade, a different meaning. Because everyone perceives it in their own way: having an individual perception of the world, life experience and interests. A work of art can have many different interpretations.

It's like synesthesia - the ability of some people to involuntarily mix sensory perceptions. If for one synesthete the letter A is emerald and Monday smells like rain, this does not mean that other people with this ability will have the same associations. Nabokov, himself possessing the gift of synesthesia, understood this perfectly.

The author will never be able to become his own reader, but he can try to make sure that the people he considers worthy get his book. Only a thoughtful reader, ready for the puzzles and games of imagination that the author has prepared especially for him, will be able to pass the selection and gain access to the genius of the writer. “A work of art for a person is now a secret that needs to be revealed, a role that needs to be played, a stimulus that spurs the imagination.”

The peculiarity of Nabokov as a writer is that he does not allow his works to go with the flow. The basis of his work is a game with readers, allowing them to independently imagine the world, the impetus to which they receive when reading and correctly revealing the mysteries hidden in books. Its reader must love to read and must also have a developed imagination. In addition, which in the case of Nabokov is necessary, otherwise the mechanism of mutual understanding between the author and the audience will not start, it is extremely important to have at least some knowledge about the life and personality of the author himself.

A book is an imaginary world, and if the reader is not ready to use his imagination, he is not ready to read it. You cannot influence the fate of a book after it has already been published. Nabokov knew this: “Literature is fiction. Fiction is fiction. To call a story true is to insult both art and truth.” Therefore, he paid great attention to commentaries, prefaces and afterwords, as well as translations of his works. If you work through all these components, think through to the smallest detail how to direct the reader in the direction the author needs, then the book itself will begin to select those who are worthy of it.

Nabokov’s desire to control the future fate of his works can also be assessed by his affection and admiration for his wife Vera, who was always by the writer’s side, sometimes even replacing him or doing literary work for him related to translations and composing lectures.

“She and I are the best readership for me,” Nabokov asserted, chuckling, in 1965. “I would say the main audience.” Friends believed that Nabokov did not need any other audience other than his wife.

By creating the image of an ideal reader, any author will bring him as close as possible to himself, endowing him with common qualities and characteristics. Because it is in this case that success in perceiving the work the way its creator wants is guaranteed. And Nabokov was no exception to this.

“A real reader absorbs and perceives every detail of the text, admires what the author wanted to impress him with, shines from the amazing images created by the writer, magician, magician, artist.”

W. Eco writes about symbols that are used in modern literature as a means of “communicating the uncertain, open to constantly changing reactions and interpretive approaches,” and cites as an example “open” symbols in the works of F. Kafka: castle, waiting, sentencing, metamorphosis. Similar symbols can be found in Nabokov’s novel “Invitation to an Execution”: the same castle and the prisoner, left alone with the whirlwind of his own fears, thoughts and dreams.
This work is indeed very metaphorical and “open”, and if the reader begins to take everything literally, he will not be able to find the key to unraveling the author’s intention.

“The work is open - an invitation that gives the performer a chance to navigate the world, which always remains as the author intended it,” Eco believes, which also allows us to draw a parallel with the above-mentioned work by Nabokov.

Few writers openly put their readers on an equal footing with the heroes of their works. The description of the “ideal reader” is a regular motif of Nabokovian studies: this reader knows several languages and literatures, entomology, chess, Nabokov’s biography, or rather, he not only knows, but for the sake of reading Nabokov he learned. And unraveling the “true meaning” of his books is part of the professional responsibilities of researchers.

The novel “Invitation to an Execution” is indeed more open, in contrast to the same “Lolita”, which brought Nabokov world fame and glory. Comparing these two works by the same author, it is clearly seen that “Lolita” does not require much special preparation and commentary, like Nabokov’s other works. However, some preparation is still needed: there is hardly a reader capable of unraveling and appreciating it the first time.

“A real writer, who makes the planets turn, sculpts a man and, while he sleeps, mercilessly crushes his rib - such a writer does not have ready-made values: he must create them himself.”

Thus, we can say that to the question of who appeared first and who creates whom in the literary world: the reader’s writer or vice versa, one can find many different answers. One thing is certain: they cannot exist without each other. Thus, a true sincere reader will strive for the author, and the writer, in turn, will do everything possible to find his viewer and delight him with his talent and depth of thought, trying to catch a reflection of himself in the reader.

LIST OF SOURCES AND LITERATURE USED
1.U. Eco. The role of the reader. Research on text semiotics. M.: Symposium, 2007.
2.S. Schiff. Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov). M.: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 2002.
3.B. Nabokov. Lectures on Russian literature. S-P.: Azbuka, 2012.
4.B. Nabokov. Lectures on foreign literature. S-P.: Azbuka, 2011.
5.B. Nabokov. Gift. S-P.: Azbuka, 2009.
6. Kommersant - daily national business newspaper, http://kommersant.ru
7. Russian synesthetic community, http://www.synaesthesia.ru

U. Eco. The role of the reader. Research on text semiotics.-p.93
V. Nabokov. About good readers and good writers.-p.38
Hughes interview, December 28, 1965.
V. Nabokov. Writers, censorship and readers in Russia.-p.40
U. Eco. The role of the reader. Research on text semiotics.-p.109
V. Nabokov. About good readers and good writers. - p.34